Our Kitties (Blogging through the Alphabet - K)

We are a kitty family and they often appear in my posts about our daily life. I've talked about them a little bit over the past few years, but thought I'd give a short description of each today.

Christmas morning with their new toys.

Biscotti -
Sometimes called big-boy, or little dude. But mostly just Biscotti.

He was the first of our kitty-cats to be adopted from a local humane society / rescue group at the age of 12 weeks. Amber had been allergic to both cats and dogs from very early on, but regular follow-up allergy testing when she was nine years old showed she had outgrown that allergy.  Her allergist's appointment was on Thursday. Saturday we adopted Biscotti.

Little did we know he was a large breed cat. He was somewhat bigger than the other cats in his litter, but not so much that his foster mom commented on it. Biscotti was lucky and born in a nice warm and safe environment. His mother was found stray and pregnant, but thankfully was able to be rescued by the local group. Biscotti and the rest of his litter were born in the foster mom's house.

He's not exactly an orange color, not exactly brown either. He's more of a cinnamon classic tabby. After he didn't stop growing at the expected size or age, along with his personality and other features, the vet determined he is a Maine Coon mix. I would never have picked out a Maine Coon as our first cat, and I would have been wrong. He is such a special boy.

From the beginning he has been affectionate and comforting to our family. He knows when one of us is sick and does his best to guard that person. When Amber is sick, especially her dysautonomia flares, he sticks to her like glue except when he feels I'm needed and then he fetches me. Quite a few times in the last several years I've been woken up by Biscotti who desperately wanted me to follow him to Amber's room. Of course when I finally did what he wanted I found Amber in need.

Biscotti is nearing five years old now, and has become my buddy. We adopted him while Amber was still attending private school, but only had him about seven months before she came home. However it was long enough for him to bond with me, the only person home. He is muscled and strong, follows commands, thinks he's a human but acts more like a dog than a cat. He is also terribly nervous and does not like strangers trespassing on his turf. He's currently on "happy" medication to take the edge off of his anxiety as the nervousness tends to make him prone to illness. He definitely fits into this family by liking his set schedules and needing calm.

He really does love his adopted siblings.

 Rosetta - 
Sometimes called Rosie, Rose, Ro, Ro-Ro, or baby cat. She was named from the Disney Fairy in the Tinkerbell movies.

She's a feisty medium haired Angora calico almost three years old. We didn't mean to adopt her the day we did. It was a simple donation drop with the rescue group as part of Amber's Girl Scout Bronze Award. We volunteer with this group regularly, and Amber had donations we were taking to them during their weekly adoption event. The night before while scrolling on Facebook I saw a photo of a litter of adorable twelve week old kittens that would be available for adoption the next day through the rescue group, and I freaked at the sight. One of them was so absolutely precious that I knew Amber could NOT be allowed to see that kitten.

By the time we arrived with our donations one of the girls from that cuddly litter had already been adopted. I was busy dealing with our items being donated and talking with some of the foster parents when I noticed out of the corner of my eye Amber holding a cat, or to be more precise THAT KITTEN.  Oh no! She not only had seen that unbelievably adorable kitten, she was holding it and pleading with her daddy to take it home. Can you guess what happened?

Biscotti really did need a friend because he was so lonely anytime we left the house and he already had started showing anxiety at age two (when we adopted Rosetta). So I agreed we could adopt the kitten who had been the runt of her litter. Little did I know yet that her litter had been born outside somewhere and the mother killed. The litter of five was found a day or two old and taken to the local rescue. One of Rosie's litter-mates did not survive a week, leaving their count at four. The whole litter was bottle-fed and thus came to see humans as their mother. They thought they were human babies.

She's always on the go, unless she's sleeping or being held. She is definitely a lap kitty.

This did not bode well for our introduction process with Biscotti. He instantly did not like Rosetta coming onto his turf, but never fear we have a guest room where Rosie was taken to spend a few days. She had a cat tree, litter box, toys, food, and water. We took turns spending time in there with her too and did slow kitty introductions at the doorway. Unfortunately, since she was a bottle kitten she couldn't stand being along at all. Fred even had to sleep in there to keep her from crying all night.

Things have turned out perfectly between the two and even though Biscotti thinks he's the alpha cat, Rosie runs the house.

Milori- 
Sometimes called Fluffy-pants or Meh (he has a weird meow).

He's a gray and white medium/long hair Angora, almost three years old and brother to Rosetta. In keeping with the Disney Fairy theme, he was named for the fairy Lord of Winter in the Tinkerbell movies.

After three days of dealing with the lonely Rosetta and knowing it was going to take a while to even get Biscotti to stop hissing, we decided Rosie needed a companion. We called Rosetta's foster mom to see if either of the brothers from the litter were still available and miraculously both were! We didn't even wait for the next adoption event, but met the foster mom immediately for Amber to select from the brothers.

Rosetta was ever so happy to see Milori and Biscotti didn't seem to care about his addition. We continued the introductions as if Milori had always been in the guest bedroom. Actually, I think Milori helped defuse the situation.

Milori is a normal sized cat, our only one since Rosetta stayed runt sized. But he does have massive paws for a cat his size. He is graceful where Biscotti is powerful and Rosie is feisty. He is tenderhearted and worries for everyone in the house, human and cat alike. He's never met a stranger and loves all visitors.

He's also a little bit... off. He gets confused easily, seems to get lost in the house at times. He thinks the only way to a destination is in a straight line, even if it means attempting to climb a wall to the second story of our house. He then calls for help because he can't get where he wants to go. He runs into furniture, and generally seems a bit different. The other two cats know it too. They treat him differently, almost like a little brother they know needs assistance. But never fear, they play with Milori; it's just in a gentler manner than with each other.

Milori is Amber's favorite of them all. He's her little buddy and like Biscotti tolerates all manner of cuddling from Amber that otherwise isn't allowed.

The siblings are rarely far from each other.

Those are our three kitty-cats and our house is full. Biscotti definitely did need friends to help him with anxiety and loneliness. It's really lovely to see how the three interact now and how each of their personalities fits into our household.

***

Please visit our Blogging Through the Alphabet hosts to read more interesting A to Z topics!
Cristi @ Through the Calm and Through the Storm & Meg @ Adventures with Jude